Showing posts with label Fringe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fringe. Show all posts
Friday, November 6, 2009
Rocket Man
Fringe: EarthlingSeason 2, Episode 6
Not to reverse my position on how this show needed to step away from the main Bell/Bishop experiments mythology, but this week's stand alone was easily the weakest episode of the show's sophomore season. What's worse is that it finally shown a bit of the spotlight on my favorite actor in the cast. Perhaps I haven't adequately detailed how much I love every actor associated with The Wire. Because it's a lot! Besides a decent opening sequence (but that gimmick is wearing thin lately - more on that later) and the terrific performance by Lance Reddick, even a glimpse of the Observer and Stargate SG-1 cameo can't redeem a rather dull adventure. And it was even directed by Mr. 24 himself, Jon Cassar.So with so much going right, how did it all go so wrong?
Well for starters, Cassar doesn't really bring much to the table that's very unique. I've watched every episode of 24 enough to learn Cassar doesn't bring much more than functionality to the table. He's the dishes and silverware, but he isn't the meal, at least not as a director. But he doesn't make this a weak episode.
The script by J.H. Wyman and Jeff Vlaming takes care of that little chore. The decision to become less of a version of Planetary (the seminal comic book by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday - thanks for pointing out the great comparison Billy) and more a ripoff of The X-Files. You can get away with doing the former because it wasn't a television show. But don't blatantly rip off the villain from "Space" with your own incorporeal force and pretend it's anything more than redundant.
Their biggest mistake is in limiting Walter's involvement and abilities. Wyman and Vlaming decided to emphasize the theme of contrasting the solid with the ethereal by having Walter unable to comprehend the formula behind this week's villain until he visually constructs it out of toys. It's the kind of heavy-handed writing that even Noble can't redeem. And unfortunately, PEter seems shoved into the background to accomodate Broyles, which is twice as much of a shame since A) Peter's the second best character in the show and B) when he and Broyles worked off each other in the pilot while Olivia was out of the picture, there was some strong chemistry between the two of them. Nothing like the Walter-Peter stuff, but it had the potential to be more interesting and engaging than the Peter-Olivia interactions. But that might just be the effect of the numerous problems I have with Olivia (i.e. not exploring her powers and all of her painful bowling/therapy scenes).
But I've come to enjoy this show enough that when I can't get interested in a plot heavily involving Reddick and guest starring JR Bourne (Martouf from Stargate: SG-1) something bad is up. In the end, the problem is how futile all the efforts of the main characters are. I still don't understand how Broyles really got any sense of resolution since the villain isn't destroyed at the end. Beyond that Walter spends the entire episode solving a formula that is in fact, unable to be fixed. Way to neuter the efforts of your characters. Being able to effect no significant change or resolution leaves the characters cuckolded and ranks just slightly lower on the Plot Developments That Piss Me Off List than discovering the problem will solve itself.
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Friday, October 16, 2009
Enter Sandman
Fringe: Dream LogicSeason 2, Episode 5
For a few weeks now, I've been mentioning my favorite parts of the second season so far. The third favorite, Kirk Acevedo's terrific work seamlessly moving from playing Agent Charlie Francis to Fake Face Charlie, is all over now, but like Olivia I mourn his loss to the show. The other two highlights are both on prime display this week. Walter, who carried the show significantly in season one and still does a bit more than his share to this day, continues to be a fabulous man-child when confronted with things he doesn't understand. And I always like a bit more of the depth the storyline behind Peter's past provides.It's safe to say this episode delivered on everything I enjoy about the show in spades. Walter is in full mad scientist mode. Peter continues to lend a hand in ever more involved ways while hinting at his tragic past. And Olivia... um... is there as well.
I was bound to dislike Olivia's storyline from the very beginning when she went to visit her bowling instructor/life coach Sam Weiss. Kevin Corrigan's performance as Weiss continues to grate on me. It's not just a case of not liking Corrigan (eventhough I really, really don't). His character is so shrouded in quirkiness, it doesn't even fit for this show. He's a zen guru who runs a bowling alley and has acted as a therapist for the CEO of one of the biggest corporations in this world and FBI agents. So there's obviously more to him than just being an average schmo. But that's how he's played for now until his larger purpose and place in the grand scheme of things is revealed. He's no substance and all showy-ness; basically everything I hated about the early days of this show. It's the same story we've seen a hundred times. Teacher roles acts crazy and makes student do stupid and pointless things. Student gets mad and wants to give up. Student realizes they've learned something. It doesn't change the fact that Mr. Miyagi was a dick that got thousands of dollars of free labor to remodel his home. At least Yoda settled for a piggyback ride and a flashlight.
John Noble on the other hand, him I love to death. His unique and humorous role was one of the first things that started reattaching Fringe for me on the DVDs. But this year continues to be a big step forward. He isn't just the convenient source for the writers to provide answers through like their own private deus ex machina. This week, he displays both his frailty (being unable to work long term outside his lab at Harvard) and sense of wonderment. Almost as fun as him experimenting on the FBI agent that escorted him back from Seattle is watching him talk Astrid into doing it. He just loves discovering answers to impossible questions. And now that he doesn't no everything, Peter gets to help out more. I loved the look of pride on Walter's face when Peter suggests the idea of mind control. Noble and Joshua Jackson have by far and away the best chemistry on the show (definitely more than Broyles and Sharp...uuggghh).
It is disappointing the show hasn't been able to prove more successful about improving their third lead. Olivia spends the episode following the nonsensical advice of Weiss (cringe-worthy), being depressed that Charlie is gone and being there when we need to shoot something. I hope now with her getting to that "You're Gonna Be Fine" message that she can leave Angst-land and have some fun with the rest of the gang. It seemed to ring false that after Walter and Peter do all the heavy lifting to solve the mystery (finding the device in their minds, making the leaps toward mind control and ultimately solving the mystery that someone is receiving the dreams of the victims and absorbing them like a drug), that Olivia gets to just throw the random connection of her father's Jekyl and Hyde approach to alcoholism to decide it must be the doctor. Considering she was along for the ride asking people for business cards to discover Weiss' message, I loathed that she got to just randomly come up with the answer. Yes, she confirmed it with good old-fashioned police work by comparing the writing samples, but once again - that was just a confirmation about her utterly wild assumption. It would have worked so much better if she was just studying the note (you know, like an FBI agent would) and found the evidence, using her personal history to back up the evidence. It's a bass-ackwards approach to presenting a resolution. This episode seems to nail the Dreams, but for the resolution at least doesn't have much Logic.
But all my complaints go away when Peter talks about his past. The fact that Walter taught him not to remember his nightmares reminds us all that Walter had a good reason to try and make Peter forget everything before he was abducted from his reality. That's the double-sided tragedy of that story because Walter needs him to forget and be like his dead son. If Peter is his son, than he is a hero in a loving father. If Peter is not his son and remembers his life before coming to Earth-1, than Walter is a sick monster that stole a child from his bed at night.
The main thing to love about this plot is how this season, we as the audience know more than a main character (in this case Peter). So much of science fiction on television today (Lost, Flashforward) is about the audience discovering something at the slower pace the main characters do. Some character knows the truth, but we can't view the situation from their perspective most of the time. So we identify with the people discovering the truth (Locke and his hatch, Jack and how to get off the island, Joseph Feinnes and why the world blacked out). It's this carrot that the creators of the show dangle in front of us for months or years at a time. And in that time we stop caring because we're tired of reaching for some truth only to have it pulled away time and time again.
In this case, we already have the carrot - the truth about Peter's early life. And now we get to enjoy how that truth is hidden or revealed a bit every week. When Peter talks about being conditioned to forget his nightmares, we don't have to wonder about the backstory. We can figure it out easily with the information we already have. His nightmare at the end isn't a clue. We know what is happening when he is snatched out of bed. And we're in a unique place that because we like Walter, we don't want him to remember and are kind of glad when he says he doesn't. Of course, if Peter does remember, it will make his eventual confrontation with Walter all the more interesting.
Walter did something we can understand, but is utterly indefensible. He couldn't accept his son's death and would bridge the gaps between realities to get him back even at the cost of his life and sanity. But you can't excuse it from Peter's perspective. He was kidnapped from his home and taken away by a man who pretended to be his father and did a poor job of it due to his mental illness. It's a lot easier to wait for the confrontation than the mystery. There are enough mysteries on this show.
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Saturday, October 10, 2009
One of These Things Is Not Like the Other
Fringe: Momentum DeferredSeason 2, Episode 4
As we learned in the season one finale of Lost and into the second, the biggest disadvantage to dragging a mystery out for more than half of a season is that expectations get too big for anything to live up to them. The hatch was never going to be as cool as it was meant to be for John Locke. I've been telling Billy that The Wire is one of the three best shows ever for years... well, I remain confident that one will live up to the billing when he finally watches it. Hear that, Billy?! Watch It!Back to the main point, its especially frustrating that characters obsess over something so much that its revelation outweighs anything else. Sure, I love them getting Walter out of his comfort zone so John Noble can shine and anything relating to Peter being from Earth-2 has me downright giddy. But for the vast majority of us, the questions all revolve around William Bell and what happened when Olivia finally met him in (of course) the last shot of the season. And once again we get delayed satisfaction. In Lost, it was spending MULTIPLE episodes getting INTO the hatch from MULTIPLE perspectives. In the case of Fringe, we had Olivia's unexplained car accident and convenient amnesia.... ahh, amnesia, the lazy writer's filler (see Teri in season one of 24 for further examples). Fringe has at least handled it better, giving us exciting new science to chase while keeping the conspiracy simmering in the background. But as they say, it's time to "nut up or shut up."
For starters, any episode of any show that starts with Curtis from 24 (the always great Roger Cross) blasting some guys apart and acting all conspiratorially with a mercury-bleeding shape-shifting so-called super soldier has got a quick thumbs up from me. Apparently, he really needs him some frozen human heads. Actually, he needs one specific human head... the rest get tossed after inspection. Basically, we have the best episode of this show in a long time, one that starts off with a bang, gets us some of what we've been waiting for (NIMOY!!!!) and peals back some of the ongoing mysteries.
Curtis sharing screen-time with Fake Face Charlie continues to outline a conspiracy of these shape-shifters attempting to get to Bell through Olivia and while they have been a bit heavy handed with it this week, I was sad to hear FFC would die if he didn't get into another body soon. Because really, how many mercury thermometer's can you chug down as a quick fix while Walter and company are closing in on you?
I was hoping they would have a episode that focused on him helping them with an unrelated case, simultaneously having him hide the fact that he isn't Charlie while performing Charlie's job. But it seems that will remain a lost opportunity.
But jumping from there, we're back in the old "I remembered this experiment Bell-y and I did." grindhouse of season one. But it was fun seeing Olivia just downing a glass of crushed up flatworms while Peter and Walter argue about it. I enjoy the Let's Just Go With It approach to fringe science investigation.
When Peter once again gets to flex his "jack of all trades" status by examining the shape-shifting control device, I loved the line about him not sleeping after seeing Invasion of the Body Snatchers because he is a pod person. Earth-1 Peter fell asleep (i.e. died) and he was brought from another world to take the boy's place. Between that and his trip with Walter to visit the latter's former experiment subject/crush, it's a funny and quirky week for the Bishop boys - as it should be. Peter giving Walter some money to help him get a girl... hilarious.
But that's not what you want to talk about really. So let's get to the Nimoy Action. He shows up (of course, in the last shot before a commercial break - good old predictable television) in one of Olivia's flatworm-induced flashbacks. Apparently, Bell (call me William, or Willem) briefly catches up with Olivia and sort-of, not-really apologizes for what his experiments did to people before explain that his and Walter's goal was to create a GateKeeper (does that make one of them the KeyMaster? Must consult Bill Murray on this ASAP) to guard between the two realities. Apparently this is Olivia, which is fitting since she isn't as interesting a character as Walter or Peter so they can keep her on par with the others by making her this show's Most Important Person in the World. And no complaints from people who watch a show that made two brothers the first and second most important people in the history of the world.
Also, Bell mentions may never be able to return to ours (yeah, right). He confirm the shape-shifters as soldiers of Earth-2. I would be mad that Bell promises that the "truth" will come out, rather than telling her more of the story. But what were you expecting? It isn't like Mulder was hanging out with aliens and discussing their long term goals in season two. But now the main characters know a war is coming and they are the front line of defense. We do get the sweet story of how she came flying through that car in the premiere and altogether it was enough to intrigue the audience and as long as we get that every so often and we never have an episode explaining how Peter got a tattoo, I can live with it for now. We even have Nina Sharp to explain Bell's words of "a storm coming" meaning one of the world's won't survive the doorway opening.
My only true complaint is how shocked and surprised everyone is to not suspect Charlie, the man who was first on the scene with the body that they prove this week wasn't the shapeshifter. Shouldn't he have been one of the first suspects? Instead of Olivia's flashback of the shape-shifter's leader's symbol or Massive Dynamic rendering the last copy from the changing device, you would think simple police work would have solved that mystery. Even if they had a great showdown between Olivia and FFC, it still could have been reached through a simpler plot. It was only really done the way it was to justify Curtis from 24 recovering his leader's head. But it gave us a great final shot with his eyes opening. And Curtis likes apples too... good to know.
Finally, just a bit of a scheduling update. I know this came a day later than usual and hopefully I'll get to Dollhouse review tonight or tomorrow morning before the Red Sox once again try their worst to get me back on a regular television watching schedule (stupid untimely hitting slump... but that's neither here nor there for our purposes). Even if it takes me until next Tuesday or Wednesday, I feel obligated to posting something about this week's The Office. It's really too big a moment to skip, even if thanks to Fringe, Supernatural and baseball postseason, it's been relegated to Check Out On Hulu Friday or Saturday Status... it's still one of my three favorite comedies on today. So hopefully, you'll hear more from me soon on all of this fun stuff.
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Thursday, October 1, 2009
Drink Up
Fringe: FractureSeason 2, Episode 3
"To all that's weird." - Peter Bishop
While I can't agree with Peter's choice of drink (I still prefer my Russians White, not Red), I easily embrace his toast. The second season has gotten off to a much better start than the first's early stumbling. It's been good to relegate Olivia remembering her time on Earth-2 to the B-plot each week. It isn't ignored and will probably be the lead story sooner rather than later, its just nice to let things take a slower pace and develop more layers to this Weird World. The bulk of the episode revolves around a single monster/villain seemingly unrelated to the multi-verse wandering experiments of Walter and Bell.As far as creepy villains go, Man Bombs is sufficiently high on the list. It's nice for scifi shows to have those stock episode plots to fall back on - in this case military science experiment continued by crazy commander. It's a formula that works well enough, especially in this episode where the main bad guy, Colonel Raymond Gordon is played by Stephen McHattie, a television veteran I remember best as the bad guy in The X-Files two-part story in "Nisei" and "731." Casting 24 and The X-Files veterans are generally both solid moves in my book.
At least we don't think its part of the main series mystery until the final reveal that Colonel Gordon's bombs are meant to destroy agents reporting to the Observer. And here I never even knew he had minions. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The mysterious opening involves a police officer abandoning his partner and searching for a man with a black briefcase as the man on his phone, Gordon, has instructed. Promptly after finding the man, the policeman crystallizes and goes Ka-Boom. And a good time was had by all. It's a decent effect and the resulting carnarge looks great. Generally everything this week involving discovering the Colonel's identity and plans and the science behind it is golden. From Peter and Olivia's evening trip to Baghdad to Walter blowing up a watermelon like some science fair version of Mount Vesuvius - all good stuff. Fun, humorous and gives us a few tiny, but interesting peeks into Peter's back story.
The mystery that Peter does as much to solve as Walter, gives them both a chance to shine separately. Pairing Walter, Astrid and an exploding watermelon works. I mean we see it coming from the first shot of the scene, but it's still fun. John Noble always has his little quirks (licking the ear brings a special smile to my face), but in the few times he is really experimenting in the unknown and being surprised works the best. Above anything else, Noble can sell this great sense of wonderment for things and its important since this quirky character would be torturously bad if he couldn't sell those jokes at least a little. But letting Walter not have all the answers right away also gives Peter a way to step up in mentally helping solve problems (discovering the radio-wave trigger) in addition to helping carry the load of physical action with Olivia hobbling around like the female Dr. House.
Speaking of Olivia's injuries, while I'm fine with dragging out the mystery for a couple more weeks, it unfortunately only took two episodes for Kevin Corrigan's stint as Olivia's... um... bowling alley owning therapist, Sam Weiss... to wear thin. I realize he might tie more into the mystery and frankly, I'm dreading it. He just happens to be one of those That Guys that seems to always be playing themselves. And not like Dennis Quaid is always playing Quaid or Denzel Washington is usually playing Denzel, but a bad way. I've seen him in seven or eight things since, but he's still the annoying, detached guy from Grounded For Life. And his tactic of annoy Olivia until she stops relying on her cane is just... nope, nevermind, annoying is the perfect word to describe it. I can only hope he either disappears quickly or is killed off... painfully.
While talking about limiting the cast, splitting time between the mystery and Olivia's drama is helped by trimming the cast for the week. Nina Sharp, our new agent Amy Jessup and Fake Face Charlie are all unseen this week, which is a bit unusual since a major FBI operation goes down to capture the Colonel and his final (Wo)Man Bomb. It stinks to miss Kurt Acevedo as Fake Face Charlie, given how well he's performed in the first two episodes this year. Jessup is still a non-entity for me, so no problem there and the less tonsil-hockey I see between Sharp and Broyles the better.
To end things, let's mention that the ending scenes are too rushed. Perhaps some of the writers and directors have to get used to allowing for more commercial breaks this season, but there is almost no time after Gordon is taken down by Peter and Olivia to explain his motivation. They obviously wanted to tie it back to end on the Observer getting a bunch of surveillance photos of Walter and company, but it meant Gordon explaining his crazy plan of detonating his own soldiers and accepting massive civilian casualties without actually being seen by the audience while talking. And that's a hard sell, my friends, especially since the bit we do see has him sharing face time with a surprised Broyles. McHattie's best assets are his grim expression and kind of creepy face and it hurts losing these tools during his big moment of the episode. I guarantee he probably nailed the scene, but it was ruined in favor or either poor directing or saving a few extra seconds from the running time.
And come to think of it, why does the Observer need to have other people photograph the Bishops? Isn't observing people already kind of his thing?
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Friday, September 25, 2009
Spooky, With a Side of Icky
Fringe: Night of Desirable ObjectsSeason 2, Episode 2
This is actually more of what the series needs. The biggest problem with a lot of mythology-heavy programs is finding the right balance between carrying on with your "Big Plan" and taking adequate breaks to just explore the world your characters inhabit. To bring The X-Files into it yet again, you need to pace out your conspiracy with some cool Monsters of the Week. And where this show struggled through most of the first season was having a "monster" that didn't tie back to Walter or Bell's research. If this is supposed to be a world where the impossible happens, it can't all tie back to these two guys working in a Harvard basement. But at the same time you can't ignore the audience's burning questions (see Lost - The Hatch for all necessary examples) particularity after a summer-long hiatus.This week's episode tries to break away from the Bishop/Bell brand of fringe science, but at the same time move the story along in the mystery of what happened to Olivia on her summer vacation on Earth-2. So how does all of this story-telling balance out?
Fairly well, actually. As far as monsters go, the Super-Mutant-Baby that looks more Grant Morrison Mutant than Jack Kirby Mutuant is executed well enough. In general they keep him hidden underground, following the Jaws approach that everything is scarier when it's out of sight if your director is executing the scenes well enough. But when they do finally show this week's monster, it holds up under visual inspection. I'd say its a great job by the effects department, certainly a big step above the alligator-ish monster from late last season.
More than anything else I was just so jazzed to have all the characters discover what was going on along with me. The loop of scenes last year where everybody was freaked out until Walter popped up and tremembered the base experiment that he and/or Bell did wore out pretty thoroughly. But to have him in a situation where he is confused and uncovering something he didn't imagine (Peter telling him the woman with Lupus did give birth) is kind of a rare treat. His enthusiasm is generally enjoyable and given that he can separate the idea of it murdering people it lacks the dark reality that Peter or Olivia would approach the situation with. He's just amazed someone did it.
Speaking of Peter and Olivia, the highlight of the episode by far is their final exploration of the house and confrontation with the Super-Mutant-Baby. Where the story dragged noticeably until the coffins of the woman and S-M-B were pulled up, this sequence near the end stole the show. The entire scene is directed by Brad Anderson (the man behind the camera for "The Cost" one of my favorite episodes of The Wire), who manages to overcome the rather forced setting of the S-M-B's tunnels. At times he pulls out a little too much so we can see things, which isn't as impressive as the claustrophobic approach I would have expected.
The big problem this week is keeping all those stories moving at the same time. As nice as it is that they are having Olivia suffer side-effects/super-powers from her trip and using that to further her resolve to remember things, I found myself missing the heavy dose of Walter and Peter interactions we got in the premiere. A lot of it is that they are both just far more interesting characters than the rather straight-laced Olivia.
Her questioning of her recent history is far more enjoyable when Fake Face Charlie is around and doing his sneaky act. So far, in a real limited amount of screen time, Acevedo's done a great job playing a completely different person impersonating the role he played last year. And his vague and discomforting instructions from the magic typewriter instantly make every scene with Olivia more interesting given the added information that we as the audience have about FFC. The one ball that kind off falls to the ground in all of this week's juggling is our latest addition, Agent Jessup, who has virtually nothing to do and shares hardly any screen time with anyone else of consequence. As much as I enjoy Acevedo's performance, until he is revealed, we're going to keep seeing Jessup pushed into the background. At this point I'm wishing they hadn't even bothered to introduce her until later in the year. Everything she brought to the table structurally so far could have been done by Charlie or FFC. Bringing her out early is doing FAR more harm than good.
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Friday, September 18, 2009
Better the Second Time Around?
Fringe: A New Day in the Old TownSeason 2, Episode 1
I suppose I've been down this road more than most. Give something a shot, feel it comes up short and move on. But on rare occasions sometimes a show can sneak back into my schedule. And if this year is the year of anything, its the Year of Second Chances. Two shows I had completely written off and one I never wanted to give the time of day are anchoring the second half of my television week. But more than my disappointment in most of the first season of Dollhouse and my (until recently) ignorance of the fun that is the Winchester brothers, Fringe was a show I wasn't going to get into. I watched three of the first four episodes, found its vain attempt to be the next X-Files insulting and changed the channel. It just wasn't going to happen. Only then it did.I gave the full first season a whirl on BluRay and like the second time I watched Dollhouse, the lowered expectations helped. This wasn't the next X-Files and was never going to be. The conspiracies are too limited. The direction cares more about looking pretty than setting a mood. It's X-Files Lite, or Diet X-Files and you know what? I really like Diet Pepsi. You can have some fun with Diet X-Files. The scripts get better and the actors really come into their own as the season goes on. And a pair of twists in last year's finale had me ready and raring to go for last night's premiere. And if you didn't watch the season one finale, don't read another sentence unless you like things being spoiled for you.
Putting aside my love and respect for Mr. Leonard Nimoy, the most important reveal of the finale was the idea hinted at mid-season that Joshua "Quack! Quack!" Jackson's character Peter is actually from the primary alternate reality that our characters have been interacting with (which the DC fanboy in me refers to as Earth-2), stolen as a child by his "father" because his son died. This might very well be the move that saved the show long term for me. John Noble (The Return of the King) is a fine actor and there were few performers who could have elevated Dr. Walter Bishop above the level of a joke. The trouble is his illness often comes off as shtick. He's stuck acting goofy for the most part as comic relief. The storytelling has now given him a way to add depth to his work because his interactions with Peter and possibly the cause of his advanced mental illness are the result of a moving tragedy.
This first episode since the reveal uses the wonderful device of Peter's approaching birthday (see party hat wearing cow above) to have Walter fretting over making him a custard that this Peter hates, but the late Earth-1 Peter loved as a small child. And of course at some point Walter effectively became Earth-2 Peter's father, so the son goes along with it as he does so many of Walter's eccentricities. And that's something else that made the show enjoyable. One of my very few gripes about The X-Files was that over time Scully saw far too much to remain a skeptic for so long. Once this show got past the Doubting Thomas Syndrome things picked up quite a bit, which has mostly involved Peter going with the flow as opposed to positing "That's impossible." every fifteen minutes like a commercial break alert.
The biggest problem this week is pulling a Lost-Season-Two-Premiere on us. They teased us with William Bell (Nimoy) for the entirety of season one only to reveal his swank location in the World Trade Center on Earth-2 in the last scene. Of course, why reveal anything when you can have Olivia show up with amnesia and drag it out some more. That's just plain annoying television.
Hopefully, they can get back in the swing of things in short order and don't drag that out too long. Olivia's usually the primary lead, so its unusual to see her so sidelined (in the hospital and scatter-brained). But it does give Peter and Walter a little more time to shine then they normally get. But even Olivia's best scene with Charlie is mostly about Kurt Acevedo telling a moving story and saying farewell to his character.
One of the biggest concerns was answered very quickly this year. After successfully taking down the first big bad last season, who was going to be a threat to the main team? Surely not Bell, he's Nimoy-tastic! Enter our Earth-2 Super Soldier disguised as our good friend Agent Charlie Francis, who will be a nice insidious force even without his changing identity device (I dub him Fake Face Francis). It was fairly easy to call that he was going bye-bye. When a new character shows up, like Agent Jessup, someone was on their way out (we call that one MI-5-itis) and it wasn't going to be any of the three leads. We can all just be glad it wasn't The Wire veteran Lance Reddick's Special Agent Broyles. The man has been a terrific contributor (this show's version of Skinner) once he stopped calling Olivia, "Le-A-Sun." Of course that was before he made the icky moment with Nina Sharp. That was just not fun.
But for the most part the show is fun. I mean this isn't Heroes seasons two and three level problems, just a few imperfections and limitations. Don't expect too much high drama and you can get a kick out of it most weeks. At least I hope we can... whether the show flows well week-to-week as opposed to a complete season at once on BD remains to be seen.
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